Memory of Redemption
by Shadow Of The Conscious
Summary: Heather encounters Alessa for the first time in 17 years. Heather offers acceptance and compassion, and Alessa offers knowledge and understanding. Can these two parallel forces stop the forthcoming of God? [CH2 Up!]
1. Burning Bridges of Vengeance

**A/N: **This is my first Silent Hill fic, but I'm not unfamiliar with this legendary piece of art. This is an alternate turn of events, post-carousel stage of Silent Hill 3 (AKA Memory of Alessa domain). Basically, you know where Heather and Alessa duke it out at the Merry Go Round? What if things turned out different? This will be continued.

* * *

**M E M O R Y O F A L E S S A**

The air was so frigid outside that Heather thought her ears would fall off.

But she had more things to worry about, like stopping the "God" infant from being born, and its unholy acts it would unleash on this Earth. _'Nobody deserves a fate like that,' _Heather thought, _'I'll prevent this demon from being born, no matter what the circumstances.' _Heather continued trekking on, until she came to another part of the amusement park. It had a few rusted yellow stands, but something stood out to her…something that she remembered. Her father always talked about a fellow police officer named "Cybil", who helped him on his journey to find Cheryl. However, on his way, she became possessed by a parasite, and tried to kill him. Her father suppressed the parasite, but he killed the policewoman as well. Something about this place reminded her of that policewoman, but she couldn't figure out why.

She grabbed the first-aid kit lying on a bench nearby, and proceeded to the Merry-Go-Round. Once she hopped on, she felt a step on paper being torn. Heather looked down and noticed a book with a dirt footprint, '_Well duh, I just stepped on it.'_ Heather witted. She picked up the book and examined it. She read the page scribbled with red ink.

**It would be better for "myself" to die, after all,**

**It's nothing to be afraid of.**

**When I think of the pain I endured in the sick room,**

**I couldn't stand to watch "myself" go through so much pain as I did.**

**Therefore, I want to bestow a more gentle, peaceful death on "myself."**

**It will not be easy, but I cannot bear to watch "myself" suffer anymore longer.**

**No-one deserves such a fate, not even "myself."**

'_What the…?' _Heather wracked her brain in confusion, '_Who is this "myself?"'_ Heather wondered, but before she could react, the gates locked and she was trapped onto the Merry-Go-Round. "Shit!" Heather yelped as if she nearly ran into a car. Everything was happening so fast, and the horses began expelling **red** breath.

"This isn't happening…this isn't happening…oh, sweet Jesus, what do I do!" Heather thought frantically, then she noticed a note hammered into one of the horses. She read it.

**When 13 turns 4**

**You shall die from their curse**

**If you wish to escape**

**There is but one way out**

**To kill or be killed**

**You will be saved by the 12th death**

"Ok," Heather concluded, "I just gotta…kill the horses." She needed something sharp, she took her knife and swiped at the pipe that held the note-toting horse up. The horse fell and slammed on the floor, causing Heather to jump back a bit. However, she now had a sharp pipe to attack the horses with. One by one, she swung at the moving horses, and each one made a sharp, winding down cry as the red breath disappeared. "Swing…rinse…repeat…swing…rinse…repeat." She slowly muttered, as she slowly beat the horses to death with her object.

Once all the horses ceased moving, she breathed a sigh of relief. However, all hope would quickly darken away as a loud rumble shook the attraction, and started sinking underground.

Then it was all darkness…and silence.

And then, it is when Heather knew everything, the memories of herself 17 years ago, her former self as a child, the nurses, Lisa, Kaufmann, her mother, Harry, Samael, the sick room, the burnings. She knew them all, it took a flicker of darkness for her to understand everything now. Then when the light re-appeared, it was no longer a Merry-Go-Round. No, it was a ritual cage. And Heather was the main attraction.

Heather wrinkled her nose at the smell of burning flesh, which came from the spinning column at the center of the Merry Go Round, she took notice of the red carpeting that replaced the rusted steel, and the horses were either covered in tissue paper or in rags with bobble heads. "This is the work of God? You've gotta be kidding me." Heather spat.

Now however, Heather would have more things to worry about then the macabre look.

Like the macabre figure approaching her.

And it's getting closer.

And Heather's completely oblivious to that.

Heather finally regained her senses and turned around to notice the dark figure approaching from the other side of the Merry Go Round.

Heather stared at the figure as if it was a bloody reflection of her very own image. She…or whatever looked like it was, was caked in blood and burnt scars, as if it won a 10,000 to one war. Heather couldn't make out her own freckles on its face. Its clothes were warped from her clothes. Black denim jeans, black boots, orange vest, black turtleneck, black wristbands, and a broken watch. What she noticed was black hair reaching shoulder length.

Then, Heather knew who it was…or better yet…_who she was._

"Alessa…"

Both figures stared down at each other for a while, like a classic western gun fight. However, the antagonist had the upper advantage.

"Alessa," Heather continued to mutter. "How strange of me to call you that, since you kinda _are _me."

Alessa continued to stared Heather down in silence. Heather examined the face of Alessa, there was no trace of anger, or hatred, more like a protective look. Heather remembered when Dahlia told her that in nature, sometimes mothers eat their young.

Maybe Alessa came to kill her. It wouldn't surprise Heather if Alessa came to do just that.

Heather's worst fears were true, Alessa finally made the first move, raising her knife and challenging her incarnation to a duel. But Heather did not want to fight her former self. She may have had the courage to kill the abominations preceding her, but Heather always had a worse fear of having to battle herself.

Heather bit her lip, trying not to do anything that might result in a quick death, she would have to negotiate.

'_No, retard! Monsters can't reason! You'll have to kill her!'_ Heather's mind pressured her to fight back against the advancing Alessa, but all Heather could do was run, praying the Merry Go Round would stop somewhere.

Until then, Heather was trapped.

All she could do was to reason with Alessa.

"Alessa, you don't have to do this."

Heather kept walking backwards, avoiding the first slash of the knife. Heather thought of a way to bide time, and slid her knapsack in front as a temporary shield. Alessa kept advancing on Heather.

"Please Alessa," Heather pleaded, "I know everything, about the sick room, our mother, Dahlia abused us. I know your grief Alessa, but you don't have to take it out on me, what's the point in that? It's like suicide." Heather chuckled at the last sentence.

Alessa swung her knife a second time and Heather yelped as it reached near her knapsack. Heather took cover behind one of the bobble-headed horses as Alessa chipped off the nose of the horse with all of her force.

"Oh, Jesus…" Heather gasped for air.

Heather knew this was the end, Alessa had already reached her, and prepared for a quick and hopefully painless death. Heather failed, and she knew it. She failed at stopping Claudia's machinations, and she failed at avenging her father's death. But she would not go down just yet, she had something she wanted to "say" to Alessa.

"Alessa, here I am in your mercy. I know you will never let go of your eternal hatred for those who had betrayed you. But know this, the more you let your anger consume your soul, you will never be free. I just wanted to let you know this. Go ahead and kill me now, but if you do, you're only hurting yourself."

Heather gulped, she waited for the end.

But the end did not come.

Heather looked up and Alessa stood completely still, her face contorted with shock. She dropped her knife and it landed with a thud to the ground. Heather rose up from the ground. Apparently her compassion method had worked.

Heather didn't know what to do, whether to offer Alessa a hug, or perhaps hand her weapon back, or whatever.

But Heather could detect a faint smile on Alessa's blank face.

For a moment Heather enjoyed her life being spared, and this moment of peace.

Then the Merry Go Round reached the chapel.

The contraption began to shake violently, it thrust and shook as it stopped to it's destination. Unfortunately for Alessa, one of the horses' poles collapsed and the horse fell on Alessa's right leg, trapping her there. Heather flew back from the rumbling and was knocked out by a nearby horse as well.

And once again, all was silent.

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**End of Chapter 1**


	2. Dancing Sheep

A few years ago, Heather and her father went for a short walk.

Her father talked to her about growing up, about making new friends when they had to move, about Heather's complicated life. He always told her that "To keep your enemies closer, keep your friends in your heart. That's your tool against the scum of this world. Remember this Heather."

"Okay Dad, I will."

Then Heather woke up.

Her first sense was the smell of musty air and rusted metal, which wafted over to her nostrils as if some crept very silently toward her, and poked her in the nose. Second sense was sight, as her eyes woke up to darkness, and she could not see anything. The third sense was touch, as she lie on the cool carpet, which gave slight comfort but a whamming fourth sense of overwhelming uneasiness. Her last sense was the taste of blood and fur, she gagged when noticed this last one and shot straight up.

She gasped for air, as if she was submerged for two minutes underwater, her eyes wandering. She tried to remember what happened, or, did anything happen at all?

And then it hit her like the largest jackhammer of guilt to her gut.

"Alessa?" She asked, silently. She wanted to yell, but she felt it would be rather…un-heather like.

She arose from the floor and walked around the carousel, looking around to see if she escaped or disappeared or whatever. But then she saw Alessa, just…sitting there. It looked like she didn't really struggle at all. The debris was off, then she noticed the moist blood that absorbed into the carpet.

Heather sighed.

She removed some cleaning cloth from her knapsack and some alcohol and applied it carefully to Alessa's thigh. The alcohol stung Alessa, Heather could tell Alessa's strain to remain her face as it had been, emotionless. "It's okay, it's only gonna sting for a little bit. Heather took a second piece of cloth and tied it closely so any further bleeding would halt, just to be on the safe side.

When she was done, she stood up from the ground and looked at Alessa. She sighed a heavy sigh of relief. "Can you walk?" Heather inquired. Alessa didn't answer, she just withdrew. Heather kneeled down next to Alessa.

"Look, Alessa, I know this came as a huge shock to you. I know you did not expect to be alive again, but we can't just live with our own mistakes, wishing the things that happen didn't. We have to live for the future, that's what Mankind is for."

Alessa didn't respond. Heather became frustrated.

"Look, I'm not gonna leave you alone, until you come with me, so I can just keep bugging you with long boring monologues until you cooperate, how's that?"

Heather walked across the musty and dank halls preceding the church, acting as a crutch for Memory of Alessa, who needless to say, was limping pretty badly. When they tried to enter the church door, it was locked. The only clue they had was the writing above, they read what looked like something in latin. "Ugh, I wished I took Latin this year." Then a light bulb lit up in her mind and turned to Alessa, who looked like she was staring into space.

"Say, Alessa, didn't mother teach us latin as a second language, you know, for the Order?" Alessa looked at her as if she knew this answer from heart, but would rather die then answer the question. "C'mon Alessa, you're supposed to be a memory right?" Heather grinned sinisterly at Alessa, Alessa felt fairly uncomfortable and tried to shift away from Heather. However Heather simply grabbed her and clutched her around her shoulders.

"Oh c'mon Alessa, lighten up! At least a little," she shook Alessa playfully in mid-sentence "that is, if you don't want any more monologues about acceptance and forgiving the past, don't you?"

Alessa sighed, she cleared her throat and focused on the writing. Heather shined her flashlight so Alessa could get a better look. In a simple voice, Alessa translated the writing on the wall.

"Heed! My lamb, my cattle, for the sacrifice is forlorn, but the reward is redeeming."

To Heather's surprise, Alessa had no screwed up voice, no demonic undertone, it nearly sounded like her very own, when she finished the translation, the door unlocked by its own. Alessa stepped back, expecting something bad to happen, but Heather stepped in front of her, shielding Alessa from any incoming monster. After a few moments, Heather concluded the way was safe. She then turned to Alessa, "Are you okay by yourself? I just need you to sit here for a few minutes. I'll go make sure the way is safe." Alessa nodded, and sat down next to the grimy wall. "Just stay here." Heather commanded, and Alessa nodded.

"By the way, you forgot something…" Alessa spoke. Heather turned around and before her lied her knapsack.

Heather smiled, Alessa smiled too.


End file.
